Comments on: Keep Your Morals Off My Pill

By: Sissy Panty Buns

Sissy Panty Buns — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:56:08 +0000

Using birth control is to a large degree a selfless act and good for our planet. It would be folly to ignore the long term overview of the increase in human global population and the corresponding increase in the consumption and use of this planet’s natural resources. There is a scene in the movie ‘The Matrix’ in which Agent Smith lectures the captive Morpheus on how the human race is similar to a virus in the way they multiply and consumes everything around them and then mindlessly look for another area to exploit until nothing is left. When I was young there were less than three billion people on the planet. How many are there now all vying for the same resources, causing our roads to be clogged, and on and on. The pity of it all is that the very people who have no business multiplying and have no vagina themselves (ugly to the bone men like the head of what I refer to as the Aggressive Fascist Alliance – the A.F.A.) are selfishly having large families and indoctrinating their children with their hateful bigoted ideology, oblivious to the fact that millions of people in this overpopulated world are starving. Those who are either lesbian or, if they do have sex with a male, use a condom or diaphragm in addition to the pill, should be commended and complimented on their thoughtfulness and selflessness.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:23:30 +0000

I take BC so I can have as much consequence-free sex as I can fit into my day

By: vegkitty

vegkitty — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:30:50 +0000

Sarah Haskins has a great “Target Women” about this. She makes a joke about how BC “should” be advertised:

“Do you like having sex… but don’t want to have a baby? Try BIRTH CONTROL. You can have sex… but not have a baby!”

By: lalaland13

lalaland13 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:33:20 +0000

@BlondeGrlz: I have a couple of good friends who went through that. Well, they wanted to have sex and were on b/c because of bad periods, and so they had sex without having to say they were on b/c for the purposes of having sex. I’m not sure what they would have taken or done otherwise, but can’t blame them for lucking into the “Hey someone wants to do me! And I’m already on the pill!” lottery. When you’re inexperienced, I guess they were glad to have one less thing to worry about?

By: Blondegrlz

Blondegrlz — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:30:46 +0000

When I was 14 or 15 my doctor prescribed Accutane for my horrible acne and birth control for…birth control. But she told my mother it was to help with my “medical condition” which I think she explained as irregular, painful periods. The HBC was required because Accutane causes horrible flipper-baby birth defects but my mom was convinced as soon as I took the first pill I’d be out slutting it up. Truth was I hadn’t even made it to second base but if it weren’t for the “medical” excuse she never would have allowed me to take HBC. So if it keeps a few teenage girls baby-free I’m ok with that reasoning.

By: la sooz

la sooz — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:08:31 +0000

Seems it’s just a marketing technique. Instead of losing customers who decide to go off when they are not sexually active, or young women who aren’t even having sex yet, they tout the benefits to health, skin, easy periods, good moods, whatever. It’s all about money, I dont think big pharma cares if we’re sluts or not!

By: Magda

Magda — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:49:04 +0000

This “medical excuse”, however, helps me justify spending $35/month on BC as I haven’t found anyone with whom I want to have sex for months now. I’m paying $35 for a 2-day period, turns out.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:52:57 +0000

@baraqiel: Yeah, I know. I wish it were that simple. Unfortunately hormone levels are so variable that doctors usually can only make an educated guess about what combos will work, usually based on age and menstrual history (and if you start when you’re a teen, you don’t have much menstrual history to go on). And things like diet change, medication, going through depression, etc. can affect hormone levels too, so there’s a lot of trial and error, which sucks, esp. since you need at least 3 solid months of taking a certain pill to know what its side effects really are.

I once switched to a low-dose pill b/c the doctor thought it would help with my yeast infection problem, and after about 6 weeks of constant spotting, I was like “Fuck it, give me back my Ortho-Novum!”

By: baraqiel

baraqiel — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:26:34 +0000

Thanks for the links, I’ll definitely check them out. It’s hard to find reliable, clear data about HBC and its effects. Even when I went to my health center, which is very female-friendly, and told the doctor there that I needed a different kind of pill, she seemed to have no idea what to prescribe for me and looked up a suggestion in what appeared to be a HBC manual. I wish there was some clear test or way to tell what hormone combination will work for what person — give your family history and your blood type or something, and get a brand name. But, alas, it seems no such correlation is forthcoming.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:59:33 +0000

@baraqiel:

Here’s some solid info about different studies on the Pill and cancer over the last 15 years. As you can see, the results seem to vary from “no risk at all” to “very small risk”.

I’m always very careful to look at the source when I read something about the Pill and health risks. Anytime you see some website saying “ZOMG, the Pill gives you cancer!” it’s likely either anti-feminist propaganda or fringe-y alternative health groups with zero hard data.

http://www.nytimes.com/specials/women/warchive/960925_1017.html

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/oral-contraceptives